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"EPA Rejects Challenge To 'Credible, Compelling' Climate Science"

"The Environmental Protection Agency unleashed a full-throated defense on Thursday of scientific evidence that mankind is dangerously warming the planet, and of the Obama administration's unilateral moves to curb the heat-trapping gas emissions scientists blame for climate change.

Rejecting a series of critiques lodged by groups seeking to block federal regulation of greenhouse gas emissions -- including allegations linked to the so-called "Climategate" e-mail scandal and a pair of errors in a high-profile United Nations climate report -- EPA officials declared that "climate science is credible, compelling and growing stronger."

In a press release, EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson said the climate science critiques were rooted in "selectively edited, out-of-context data and a manufactured controversy" and that they "provide no evidence to undermine our determination" that greenhouse gases endanger human health and are thus subject to regulation under the Clean Air Act.

Ten groups had petitioned to challenge that determination, which is known as the "endangerment finding," including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, coal giant Peabody and the states of Texas and Virginia."